Another milestone today… 19 years at ATN Channel 7 Sydney

And I hear you say 19 years isn’t a milestone… next year is 20 and that’s a milestone, but when you look at it closer, I have been at channel 7 over half of my life now…


I’m 38 next week and started there a week shy of my 19th birthday… and have been there ever since… There’s not many left at Seven that can say that these days, but this afternoon was able to reminisce with some of my colleagues who have been there even longer than me; and who passed the half life milestone even earlier than I did… It’s also a sad time for us old-timers- or long-termers, as we are gradually seeing our life and our ‘home’ at Mobbs Lane being ripped apart as Seven prepares to move out for good and prepare for the next chapter in its life at ATP in Redfern.


While News officially moved out 5 years ago; I've still been a regular at the Mobbs Lane studios as a lot of our maintenance is still done there; I still have long term equipment storage squirreled away; and not to mention the goldmine that is the News Archive… It’s been very sad over the last 6 months as we prepare for the final move and seeing stuff that has always been there, and put away on the back of a shelf “because it might come in handy one day” be thrown away like it doesn’t mean anything


Every corridor, every office, every edit suite, every Studio has a story (or many) to tell, and to see all this being torn down and thrown out is a very sad time, especially for those of us who have spent the best parts of our lives there… Those big Studio A productions; those mammoth OB’s like Golf and Bathurst; and those major news events that we have downstreamed through Studio C like the Thredbo Landslide, the Gulf Wars, September 11 and Diana’s Funeral; along with the iconic dramas like A Country Practice, Sons and Daughters, Rafferty’s Rules; and current ones Home and Away, All Saints and Packed to the Rafters…


When they pulled the photos off the walls in the corridors earlier this year, that’s when it really hit me that we were moving… I had a tear the night we moved out of the Newsroom in August 2004; and I’m sure when I make that final drive out of the gate next year; it will be a sad day… I’ve had such a great times there, and met and worked with such great people, both on screen and behind the cameras; anyone who’s still at Mobbs Lane and has spent time there in its heyday, will have a tear in their eye the last time they leave…


Seven is only my 3rd fulltime job… my first in 1987 at Westpac and then Channel 10 in 1989; before moving to Seven in October 1990.


While todays blog is off topic; it's something that I wanted to share as it’s another thing that is very important to me and my life

Until next time